These two associations also urged the Ivo Sanader cabinet to reconsider its decision on Cigelj's replacement.
The leader of one of those two associations, Slavica Hruskar, told a news conference in Zagreb on Saturday that Cigelj was a victim of the Homeland Defence War who had been tortured in Serb-run camps in Bosnia-Herzegovina in early 1990s and that she had received many awards for her subsequent peace-building activities.
We cooperated very much with her and we were unpleasantly surprised and shocked when we learnt about the government's decision, Hruskar said.
Hruskar said that they also condemned the act of some of civil society associations that had compiled the controversial questionnaire which served as a motive for the government's decision of last Thursday to sack Cigelj.
Last Thursday, the government stated that it had relieved Cigelj of the duty after she had sent, without the government's knowledge, the questionnaire to members of a civil society development council for the purpose of security checks.
A part of nongovernmental organisations that previously asked for Cigelj's dismissal explained that it was they who had compiled the questionnaire with what they said ridiculous questions, and that the purpose of their action was to emphasise the absurdity of engaging secret services in security checks of the council's members.
Those NGOs including GONG, the Centre for Peace Studies and the Green Action, responded with a statement that the government misinterpreted the questionnaire and wrongly named Cigelj as its author.
Those NGOs said that not only security checks but also some other things had been the reason for their insistence on Cigelj's replacement.